topad

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Starting Seeds with What??? Newspaper Pods

This little garden trick has me super excited- because one, it is a green way of starting your garden, and for two, its easy and a nice way to hold those seedlings that need more room to grow. For this, you're going to make your own newspaper pods for starting seeds. It's an economical solution that allows you to be versatile in the size of your pod, and your seedlings will love it!

For this you're going to need a round container, like a can or a bottle, some newspaper and some tape.

First, take your newspaper and lay it out flat, and fold down about an inch or two on one side:

Then, take your bottle/can and lay it down on the paper leaving extra space on the end without the fold, and begin to wrap the newspaper around the bottle:

When you get about 6 inches away from the end of the newspaper, stop and rip up that fold, like this:

Then go ahead and continue rolling up until the end, then push the bottle down a bit to allow room at the top. Your bottle will look something like this:

Fold that extra bit at the top down to the inside. This will hold the top in place without having to use tape.

After that is done, push the bottle back up through the top, like so:

Now, turn the bottle over and form the bottom of the pod by folding in the sides:

When you've folded them all in, you'll end up with something that looks similar to this:

On which you will place one piece of tape to hold it in place:

Now you can go ahead and flip the bottle back over and pull it out of your pod. Voila! Now you have a really neat seed starter that, like I said, is fully customizable. I am able to make the sizes that are best for my seedlings, making more room for those that need it, and less for those that don't.

Now you can't just put soil in these and water them... as all the water would come out the bottom. But this is the best part. Most seedlings don't like the water directly on the soil, and sometimes it will disturb your seed and sink it into the soil to never see the light of day. So, if you put these in a tupperware container, or something else with a solid bottom, you can pour the water into this solid container and the seed pods will soak up the water from the bottom. The seeds really enjoy this treatment and I've found that they love living in these newspaper pods.

Now those are my large pods. I use these for seedlings that have either outgrown their smaller pods or that grow so fast they need larger spaces. I've also made some with soda cans to make a smaller container for those seedlings that are either slower growing or don't need that much space before they'll go outside.

And just in case I haven't given you enough pictures, check out these from my version with the can:

I hope you try some of these wonderful seed starter pods. I'm going to write a follow up post soon with all the great success that I've had with mine!